FA 2021-22 Annual Report Shows Significant Progress Towards Achieving Strategic Goals
The Football Association [The FA] has published its annual report for the 2021-22 season, between 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022.
During this period, the FA made strong progress against the key objectives within its four-year Time For Change strategy, supporting its ambition to be a force for good throughout English football and in society.
The 2021-22 season saw record investment into the women’s and girls’ game, culminating in England Women’s historic UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 victory at Wembley Stadium. This major tournament success has provided a strong platform for unprecedented growth and a legacy programme that has seen over 7,000 more women and girls playing football throughout the host cities. In partnership with Barclays, the FA helped to deliver the inaugural Biggest Ever Football Session with over 90,000 schoolgirls playing football as part of the Let Girls Play campaign. The FA remains focused on working with Government to ensure that girls can play football in every school across the country.
The FA is on track to deliver 5,000 quality pitches across the country by 2024, with a total of 2,607 delivered since 2022. It also continues to make progress towards its ambition of delivering a game free from discrimination, including the ongoing delivery of the Football Leadership Diversity Code and the continued fight against online abuse.
The landmark Football Your Way plan was launched in October 2021, which is the first of its kind in English football and demonstrates a commitment to ensuring that disabled people have opportunities to engage and participate in football their way, from grassroots to elite level.
The Emirates FA Cup continues to be recognised as the best domestic cup competition worldwide, with its 150th anniversary campaign seeing record online engagement, while a landmark investment into the Vitality Women’s FA Cup will increase the prize fund to £3m per year.
The 2021-22 season saw a return of crowds and a full event calendar alongside the strongest ever year of new Club Wembley membership sales. Broadcast, sponsorship, and licensing revenues continue to be fundamental to the FA achieving its strategic goals, and this season the organisation secured new deals for coverage of both the England Women senior team and the Barclays Women’s Super League.
As part of the ambition to serve over two million people through transformed digital platforms, the Player Registration System registered over 1.3 million new players, while the Matchday app, which supports grassroots football administration, has seen the number of users increase by over 50%. England Football membership also increased by one million users this season, while the organisation’s CRM database grew to 6.5 million members, enabling stronger engagement with supporters.
Building and maintaining strong relationships with partners remains critical to success, with their continued support enabling investment across the game. The 2021-22 season saw new partnerships agreed with Barclays, Nike, EA, Isuzu, M&S Food and M&S Formalwear, Nuffield Health, and Xero, whilst the 150th anniversary season of the FA Cup saw Emirates extend its association with the competition until the 2023-24 season. The FA also announced a new two-year charity partnership with Alzheimer’s Society to help build awareness and raise money for this important cause.
As well as contributing strongly to the Women’s Football Review, throughout this season the organisation implemented recommendations from the Fan-Led Review and remains committed to working closely with Government and football stakeholders to explore the best options for the game.
Financial results
The FA generated a total turnover of £518.8m [2020-21: £443m] with an operating profit of £138.6m [2020-21: £132m]. These financial results comprise a consolidation of Football Association Limited, Wembley National Stadium Limited, and the National Football Centre Limited.
During the 2021-22 season, the FA reinvested £119m across every level of the English game, including coaching and participation, County FAs, disability football, equality and child protection, player welfare, competition prize money, facilities, women’s football, referees, and the grassroots game. This investment is a year-on-year increase of £8.6m from the 2020-21 season when excluding one-off costs related to prize money and scheduling changes.
The 2021-22 financial year was materially impacted by fixture scheduling, including an increased number of international games due to postponements related to COVID-19, and the timing of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The 2022-23 FA Community Shield was brought forward to July and therefore fell into this financial reporting period.
The impact of the pandemic on FA revenues was not as high as the £300m that was previously reported, and as a result the organisation will increase investments in the game from the 2022-23 season. This has meant that, with cost mitigation levels, the FA has generated higher profits over the past two financial years, which has been used to repay debt from building Wembley Stadium and to build a contingency fund to help safeguard the organisation against potential future material events. The organisation also faces new cashflow challenges including higher rates of inflation which are impacting the cost of living, as well as rising utilities and event day operational costs.
FA Chief Executive Officer, Mark Bullingham, said: "This has been an important year of growth and progress, both on and off the pitch – and I’m proud of how we have performed against our strategic objectives, which included winning a major tournament, with the Lionesses’ historic victory at Wembley in the Women’s Euros last summer.
"We are now half way through our four year ‘Time For Change’ strategy and plan, and we will continue to focus on serving the game and using our influence to inspire positive change in English football and wider society. We know there will be challenges ahead, including rising energy costs and the impact of inflation, but we remain focused on delivering a game that is truly for all."
For more information on the FA’s financial results, please click here.
